Srinagar, Dec 5 National Conference (NC) leaders, including Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, today paid tributes to the party’s founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on his 112th birth anniversary.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, popularly known as Sher-e- Kashmir, was NC president Farooq Abdullah’s father and the grandfather of the party’s working president Omar Abdullah.

In a brief programme, they paid their tributes to the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister at his mausoleum at Naseembagh on the Dal Lake’s bank here.

NC leaders offered ‘fateha’ (a special prayer) at the grave of the party’s founder.

Sher-e-Kashmir’s struggles and sacrifices for the dignity of Jammu and Kashmir and its people need to be emulated to take the state out of the throes of “divisive politics and sinister plans of political disempowerment”, Farooq Abdullah said in a statement yesterday.

“His life was a valiant story of selfless leadership. He fought for the political rights and dignity of his people till his last breath. He chose prison over power for his people and it is this sense of sacrifice and courage that needs to be instilled in our youths,” the NC president said.

He said that the NC founder’s call for inclusiveness and secularism needs to be heard in every town and village of the state at a time when political forces are trying their best to divide people on the basis of region and religion.

Omar Abdullah said that the ultimate goal of the NC’s founder was the political and economic empowerment of the common man and the equitable development of Jammu and Kashmir.

“His vision of ‘Naya Kashmir’ encompassed holistic and comprehensive development of all sections and regions without any discrimination,” he said.